Ambient music radio program on Radio Spiral and LiveStream. Hosted by Rebekkah Hilgraves, Saturdays from 1-4pm Pacific Time/US.

September 15, 2012August 16, 2015

Falling Leaves

Continuing the theme of autumn (and because there’s so much great music around the topic of leaves!), today’s program examines the leaf in its autumn glory. We’ll feature Michael Sandler’s “Leaf Showers”, Andrew Lahiff’s “The Falling of Endless Leaves” and OVe’s “Leaves After Rain”, as well as many other, shorter works.

Kathryn Kaye grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of southeastern Kentucky. She began playing piano at the age of four, and music immediately became an essential part of her life. She majored in voice and keyboard in college, after which she moved to Germany to further her training.

“The Approaching Armada” is the first album I recorded in Australia after relocating from the U.S. in 2008. The ominous title says it all, and was my mood in those harrowing days of my then-unknown future in Australia.

Chris’ enigmatic soft synth loops were love at first listen to me… their sensitive, sonic quality had a feeling that I knew would lend them to my analog “reel to reel” looping, sound design techniques used in previous Disturbed Earth recordings. This is truly an album of giving the illusion of multi-layering, when in actuality it was only done in a few live takes for each track. This album was also a first for me to “not play” as such, as a musician; to be able to recreate my playing through Chris’ loops… I found this the way to go and it freed me up to produce… it really paid off!!!

So having said that, the whole concept of working with another person ushers in the whole thing of respect, communication, time, time zones (Chris in the U.S. / Dean in Australia) and the expanding of each other’s sensibilities… taking each other where we haven’t been before… stretching/confronting.

For the most part, all tracks on the album were mixed on my makeshift computer at the time… using Magix Audio Studio 11, I also used Ableton Live 7 on the track “From East To Evening” which includes manipulated vocals from my long time collaborator, kyra aka “pixyblink”.

“The Approaching Armada” is all about Chris’ electronics that have been soft soaked, the brittle remaining dark and edgy… and Disturbed Earth’s presence in the sound.

Darren Harper is an ambient and electronic musician hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in Nederland, Colorado, USA. He has been a musician for twenty years, originally in the realms of punk and esoteric space-rock jams.

Darren began the journey of a trance and ambient DJ/producer early in the new millennium as half of the improvisational ambient/noise duo Holomovement. Darren’s compositional works range from beatless, environmental ambient to minimal atmospheric trance, and often attempt a merge somewhere in between.

He describes himself as “obsessed with electronic music”, particularly ambient music. He explores both dark ambience as well as more “blissed” tones. He has released solo psytrance music on Ektoplazm Records, and has also participated in a collaborative ambient project called Frequent Sync, with fellow Earth Mantra artist Jacob Newman.

The music of electronic composer Michael Sandler ranges from cyclotronic guitar improvisations to dark drones to abstract sound architectures. Hailing from North Carolina in the USA, Sandler employs a variety of instruments and non-instruments in the creation of his unusual works. Sandler’s music appeals to those seeking introspective ambient music with a sparse economy of sound and a dark edge.

He has been making electronic music since sometime in the 1990s. A refugee from prog rock attic bands and epic barn jams, Sandler has carved out a niche on the Internet ambient music scene with his minimal electronic aesthetic. His music also pops up from time to time on terrestrial radio. Michael has commercial releases available on the Blue Water and Dissonance labels as well as tons of free music on the Internet Archive.

His influences include such ambient/electronic staples as Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and Steve Roach but are quite diverse, including artists such as BB King, Buddy Rich, John Coltrane, Ash Ra Tempel, Metallica, Cradle of Filth, Joe Satriani, and Enya.

OVe is Zenas Ballace‘s work with Todd Christopher–another one of those great collaborations made possible by the interwebs.

Zenas Bellace has been messing around with electronic music for the most of the last 20 years. In that time, he has explored a variety of different musical styles. Sometimes his music can be quite relaxed, and at others, aggressive and piercing. His style borders on the frontier of glitchy ambience.

Zenas has gone by many pseudonyms over the years. His current works are created under the name zenas(prime). He has also released music as d/form, Bug, and OVe. d/form was the name of his dark ambient colaboration with Greg Quinzi. For highly experimental music, Zenas releases work as Bug–in his words, “it’s music that only bugs would love.”

“So Far” is the first of two simultaneous-release collaborations between long-time AtmoWorks recording artist Dean Richards (Disturbed Earth) and relative newcomer Salvatore Fanara (SAVO), working together despite being separated by thousands of miles.